Redhead help

wandajune6

I know that there a lot of redheads here so here goes!

I need help with 2 things:

1. An eyebrow pencil or powder that works with red. Like other redheads, my brows and lashes are completely blonde. I've been using a pencil from Bourjois Cosmetics that I fell in love years ago but I'm down to a stub and can't find them easily anymore. The brand is now hard to find and the color might be discontinued.

2. My hair is boring. It's fading. It's still obviously red but it's not as vibrant as it was when I was younger. I don't have any greys yet but I want more color. I've never dyed my hair (other than some streaks of Manic Panic in college) and am scared of anything that will grow out rather than fade. I also don't have a huge budget at the moment.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm bored with how I look!

ETA- I love the idea of henna but find the breadth of options intimidating.

blabla89

I'm not a redhead anymore but I come from a whole family of them. My aunt used to swear by the Aveda Anatto conditioner (looking at the Aveda website and it looks like it's now called Madder Root) which is basically a colored conditioner that intensifies red tones. Have you considered getting your eyebrows tinted?

theartistformerlyknownas

I'd try a red glaze before going to a dye... should just brighten up what you've got. I had one I used to keep my fake red vibrant/bring out the natural red undertones in my roots to make them less obvious. Trying to find the brand, but you used it like a conditioner in the shower.

NowIamMrsKlein

Fellow RedHead here! Oddly enough though my eyebrows are dark auburn, so Im not much help to you there. I'm kind of your anomaly redhead. I can tan, I have darker eyebrows and lashes, freckles. It's odd. I definitely still have a hard time with makeup and I recommend going to a department store that has a lot of different makeup brands and just testing some. I went with my mum (who's also a redhead) and we went counter to counter doing tests of the eyebrow shades until we found one that was in between brown and red.

I'm in the same boat with my hair fading though. It makes me sad. My mum's hair used to be as bright red as mine and now hers looks more auburn/brown. I've also never dyed my hair but Im starting to get greys so my hairdresser has suggest in a couple years to get some lighter blondes and coppers etc in to kind of blend the greys back into my hair and give it more brightness. I'm holding off though because I don't want to lose my natural hair!! It's kind of my identity.

wandajune6

blabla89 said:

I'm not a redhead anymore but I come from a whole family of them. My aunt used to swear by the Aveda Anatto conditioner (looking at the Aveda website and it looks like it's now called Madder Root) which is basically a colored conditioner that intensifies red tones. Have you considered getting your eyebrows tinted?

I've used Madder Root before but have never been convinced that it makes a noticeable difference.

I've gotten my brows tinted several times and am done with it. Twice they've turned out horribly. I find the people want to make them much darker than I'm comfortable with. They're naturally blonde so I really just want them to be visible, not a deep brown. Even when I find someone I think I like, they inevitably screw it up at some point. Eyebrows are very hard to fix.

beethery

My friend dyes her hair red and is big into makeup. I'll get recs from her.

esstee33

The eyebrow pencil I've always used is Maybelline Expert Wear in light brown. It has just enough color to fill in where I need it and just enough of a light reddish tone to look natural.

Lately I've been messing around with the Anastasia tinted brow gel in Caramel, which has been really nice. I lightly fill in and define the edges with my pencil, then go over it lightly with the gel.

As for dye, I'm probably no help. I dye mine twice a year, always with the same color: Colorsilk Medium Auburn. It's like $3/box at the drugstore. It's close enough to my natural color that you can barely tell when my roots start coming in.

ETA: I've heard good things about glosses, which sounds like somehing more along the lines of what you might want, but I've never tried one to personally recommend.

wandajune6

SoontobeMrsKlein said:

Fellow RedHead here! Oddly enough though my eyebrows are dark auburn, so Im not much help to you there. I'm kind of your anomaly redhead. I can tan, I have darker eyebrows and lashes, freckles. It's odd. I definitely still have a hard time with makeup and I recommend going to a department store that has a lot of different makeup brands and just testing some. I went with my mum (who's also a redhead) and we went counter to counter doing tests of the eyebrow shades until we found one that was in between brown and red.

I'm in the same boat with my hair fading though. It makes me sad. My mum's hair used to be as bright red as mine and now hers looks more auburn/brown. I've also never dyed my hair but Im starting to get greys so my hairdresser has suggest in a couple years to get some lighter blondes and coppers etc in to kind of blend the greys back into my hair and give it more brightness. I'm holding off though because I don't want to lose my natural hair!! It's kind of my identity.

I'm in the same boat with hair. My mom had bright red hair that turned auburn/brown when my sister and I were born. My sister (twins) didn't lose her color after having her now-toddler so I'm not sure what will happen to me. I don't want to dye my hair because it's an identity for me too- I really just want to boost it. My mom used a henna for years that I tried and loved a few times when I was younger but it's long been discontinued and I can't find anything similar now.

@lolo- a glaze sounds good. I know nothing about them!

theartistformerlyknownas

I can't find the one I used. I'd only recognize it by the shape of the bottle/cap though so if it's been redesigned I'm SOL. I do like the John Frieda stuff for blondes though so his red line is worth a try.

NowIamMrsKlein

I tried a John Frieda Glaze before. It helped a bit, I did notice my hair seemed brighter. It was kind of a pain in the ass to use and my hands always seemed a little red after haha. Sadly they discountinued the 'bright copper' version of it (at least in canada) and the Auburn Colour was much to dark for my redheadness

theartistformerlyknownas

SoontobeMrsKlein said:

I tried a John Frieda Glaze before. It helped a bit, I did notice my hair seemed brighter. It was kind of a pain in the ass to use and my hands always seemed a little red after haha. Sadly they discountinued the 'bright copper' version of it (at least in canada) and the Auburn Colour was much to dark for my redheadness

That might have actually been what I used. Was the cap sort of octagonal?

You do need to exfoliate your hands after, or wear gloves.

levioosa

I second a glaze! 

NowIamMrsKlein

It was like this. And they used to have two redhead options. A bright orangey copper (me) or a dark auburn (so not me). I think they only have a 'For all redheads' now.

I remember trying to find the copper one once and asked the store clerk if it had been discontinued and she said "Yes, they discontinued it because no one naturally has that colour of hair" to me. And my mother. Who were both standing in front of her with naturally bright copper red hair. I shake my head at people....

Inkdancer

Seconding the suggestion for Anastasia. I've been a faux-redhead for a long time, but my lashes and brows are almost black. Their auburn brow powder makes my brows look so much more natural! (I don't care for the texture of the gel, but it does have great color.)

wandajune6

I forgot about the John Frieda glaze! I used it years ago but remember it being discontinued.

It sounds like a trip to Sephora for brow color is in order. I always get overwhelmed when I go in there and leave empty-handed so I'll remind myself that I have a goal in mind!

You're all awesome. I knew this was the right place to look!

ashley8918

Boy can I help you.

My eyebrow pencil is at home, so i'll have to get back to you on that one.

But, for color brightening, I have found that the gloss/glaze things just do it for me, for whatever reason. So, what I do is I use semi-permanent dye for the exact reasons that you have, I want it to fade, not grow out. I can't remeber the name of the brand, but the latest on that I tried is THE BEST. I'll get back to you on this when I get home as well.

larrygaga

You have good suggestions for the color and as for the brow pencil it's a never ending struggle for me. I usually can get away with honey blonde shades but if I find auburn it's like YUS


Red pride

AddieCake

I started using an at-home color when mine started to fade and also get gray at the roots. My brows and lashes are not blonde, though, and I've never needed or used eyebrow pencil. I just wear black mascara.

wandajune6

ashley8918 said:

Boy can I help you.

My eyebrow pencil is at home, so i'll have to get back to you on that one.

But, for color brightening, I have found that the gloss/glaze things just do it for me, for whatever reason. So, what I do is I use semi-permanent dye for the exact reasons that you have, I want it to fade, not grow out. I can't remeber the name of the brand, but the latest on that I tried is THE BEST. I'll get back to you on this when I get home as well.

Thank you!

Wegl13

I'm not sure if I'm going to be any help at all but I use an Anastasia tinted brow gel, in caramel, that I got from Sephora. But I don't use it for my brows.... I use it for my eyelashes (because even brown mascara is WAY TOO DARK). It's a beautiful gold color and it works FANTASTIC- makes my eyelashes look bigger and fuller (actually it mostly just makes it where you can SEE my white blond lashes), without making me look like a raccoon. I'm not sure how it would work on your brows though.

ElcaB

I am not a redhead, but I am a huge fan of Bare Minerals' brow styler. It's a brow pencil that only comes in two shades: universal dark or light. My redhead friend uses the universal light on her brows (and I do, too, on my very brown brows) and it looks great. It's about how hard you press down on the pencil. 

theartistformerlyknownas

When I had red hair and ashy brown brows, I used a very coppery eye shadow as brow powder to make them look more red. I bet a deep bronzing powder might work too, for the lighter reds.

ashley8918

lolo883 said:

When I had red hair and ashy brown brows, I used a very coppery eye shadow as brow powder to make them look more red. I bet a deep bronzing powder might work too, for the lighter reds.

Ah yes, I do this sometimes too. But it is hard to find a good one without shimmer in it. I don't need orange disco ball brows.

wandajune6

Bronzer never occurred to me. I'll have to check that out too!

CMGragain

When cancer chemo and radiation took away my eyebrows, our cosmetologist who volunteered at the hospital recommended Lancome.  She said it was worth the cost. It was.  My (formerly) redhaired friend used this one.

http://www.lancome-usa.com/Le-Crayon-Poudre/794184,default,pd.html?dwvar_794184_color=Chataigne&cgid=makeup-brows#start=10

artbyallie

Ask your hairdresser for demi-permanent color. I'm a bottle redhead, and for a while was using a demi in between normal colorings to brighten my hair. It fades over time, slower than a temporary dye. And FWIW even natural redheads can't tell mine is dyed.

For the pencil, I almost never use one (since my brows are brown), but when I do I go for the brown shade in my Ben Nye kit. Looks like they do have an auburn: http://camerareadycosmetics.com/products/ben-nye-eyebrow-pencil.html

charlieyankee03

My brows and lashes are black, so I'm no help there. But my hair is auburn color and I had always heard that red hair just fades to white, rather than going gray slowly. There are only 3 of us in my whole family with red hair and my brother's is strawberry blond so it'll be interesting to see how mine changes as I age. No signs of gray/white yet, but I've had a few white eyebrow lashes pop up.

wandajune6

CMGragain said:

When cancer chemo and radiation yook away my eyebrows, our cosmetologist who volunteered at the hospital recommended Lancome.  She said it was worth the cost. It was.  My (formerly) redhaired friend used this one.

http://www.lancome-usa.com/Le-Crayon-Poudre/794184,default,pd.html?dwvar_794184_color=Chataigne&cgid=makeup-brows#start=10

I think I've had this one before! I don't remember why I switched to the other. Thanks for the reminder!

esstee33

charlieyankee03 said:

My brows and lashes are black, so I'm no help there. But my hair is auburn color and I had always heard that red hair just fades to white, rather than going gray slowly. There are only 3 of us in my whole family with red hair and my brother's is strawberry blond so it'll be interesting to see how mine changes as I age. No signs of gray/white yet, but I've had a few white eyebrow lashes pop up.

I've only gotten white hairs so far, but my mom has greys. I'm really hoping mine goes all white.

ashley8918

Okay, so here is the pencil that has worked best for me:

The color is called "light brown" but I don't suggest any of you brunettes using it. There is definitely some orangieness-redness about it.

Dye brand still pending, because I don't know where it is, but both dye and pencil pictured here

esstee33

@ashley8918‌ Yaaaaas. That's the exact one I use too!!